IntelliEye transplant on a 15 year old mouse.

My 15 year old mouse (left) has a case of worn out balls so I eBay'd a used one. When the used mouse arrived I found that the buttons were warped by heat, and non-functional but with the $300 Amazon price tag for a new one I decided to keep it and do some surgery.

The trackball is suspended on three, stationary, steel ball bearings, over the years they have developed flat spots. I have rotated them a number of times but at this point they are so worn that the trackball crashes on the plastic housing.

Oh god... hand lint? Interesting that they have four separate boards in this mouse! Big-time added cost for manufacturing.

Replaced the optical assembly and cleaned out the "hand lint" that had accumulated over the past decade.

Nice smooth balls with hundreds of miles left on them.

With a new set of balls I hope to get another 15 years out of this guy! Also, I may start doing a yearly cleaning of "lint" from now on.